Characters I want in Smash 5
The next Smash Bros is on the horizon, and that means it’s time once again
to speculate what new characters will appear as playable fighters. It’s always
a blast seeing who people come up with, and I have a few choices myself.
My one rule for this list is that the
inclusions have to be plausible. As much as I’d like to see Nathan Drake or
Darth Vader show up, there’s basically 0% chance that’s gonna happen, so I won’t
waste your time with that. This is also just a list of what I want to see in the game. We’re
probably going to be getting characters from Xenoblade, Fire Emblem and
Yokai Watch, but since I don’t really
know any of those games I’ll just be sticking to the characters I want.
Nintendo Characters
Revamped veterans
With the tease that Link will be adopting his Breath of the Wild look in this game, fans
have been speculating that his moveset will be updated to closer reflect that
game. Personally I think that the changes won’t be too drastic, especially
since he can use his sword, arrows, bombs, boomerangs and the spin attack in Breath of the Wild, but I digress.
I definitely think it’s time we gave
some older characters a bit of a tune-up. We don’t need a compete rehaul and
make them completely different than they were before, but just a few tweaks to
make them closer resemble how they play in their core series. I’d love to see
Ganondorf finally become more than a
worse clone of Captain Falcon. It’d also be great to see Mario get some of his
new moves from Odyssey, including
Cappy.
Spring-Man
ARMS
might be Nintendo’s biggest love-it-or-hate-it game of all time. While some
really enjoy it to this day, others were bored in minutes and haven’t picked it
up since then. I really enjoyed my time with the game personally, even if it’s
been a while since I played.
It makes perfect sense to include a
representative from Nintendo’s other fighting game in Smash, and Spring-Man, the face of the franchise, is a no-brainer. His
stretchy arms could be used for both close up and ranged combat, while he would
be a bit of a sitting duck when using them. The diverse roster of punching
gloves in ARMS could also be used for
a variety of attacks, making him seem like a truly diverse character.
A new Zelda character
Can you believe we haven’t gotten a
truly new Zelda character in Smash since Melee? Sure, we got Toon Link in Brawl, but let’s be honest, he’s just an updated version of Melee’s Young Link. I want a true-blue
new representative from Zelda. Not a
clone, not just another version of Link or Zelda, but a brand new character.
Thanks to Hyrule Warriors we now have a lot more moveset potential for many
secondary characters from the franchise, like Impa, Midna and Skull Kid. We
also have the Champions from Breath of
the Wild, who each have pretty unique designs and abilities that can be
used as attacks. I don’t even care if it ends up being Tingle, I just want a
new Zelda rep in Smash!
Ridley
Yeah, yeah, I know, but come on, even
as someone who isn’t a huge Metroid fan
having Ridley in the game is just too cool to pass up.
We’ve all heard the stories about how Smash developer Masahiro Sakurai thinks
Ridley is just too big to be a playable character and that making him smaller
wouldn’t do the character justice, but they resize characters all the time for Smash! Captain Olimar is canonically
about the size of a nickel but in Smash he
stands just a bit shorter than Mario. Plus Smash
has literally never had a non-Samus Metroid
representative, and with Prime 4 on
the horizon I think it’s time for one of Nintendo’s original three franchises
to get it’s due.
Third-Party Characters
The Dragonborn
I already mentioned this one in
yesterday’s April Fools’ version of the list, but I actually really think this
could happen. Last year Skyrim on
Switch was pushed big-time by Nintendo, going so far as to be featured in the
reveal trailer for the system. We also know that Smash is unafraid to include an M-Rated character or two, such as
Solid Snake or Bayonetta.
There’s also the possibility that
Doomguy will make it into Smash with how iconic the franchise he’s from is
(plus the fact that DOOM 2016 made it
to Switch), but if I were to choose which of the two Bethesda-published
characters would make it to Smash,
for me The Dragonborn is way more iconic and has a lot more moveset potential.
Indie Representatives
The Nintendo Switch has become such a
haven for indie titles that it’d be crazy not to represent a few of the biggest
names as playable fighters in Smash.
These characters have so much potential that I’m sure there’s a great one in
there somewhere.
The two I can definitely see the most
likely chance of happening are Steve from Minecraft
and Shovel Knight from…well, Shovel
Knight. Minecraft was one of the
first games to be brought to Nintendo Switch after launch day, and has one of
the biggest playerbases of any game ever. I can definitely see a character with
a moveset based around building and crafting being a really cool concept. On the
other hand, Shovel Knight was there
on Switch launch day, has his own set of amiibo and has an extremely diverse
moveset in his game, including several abilities perfect for Smash.
If we were only going to get one I
think Steve would be the more likely pick just because of how ubiquitous Minecraft has become with video games,
but I wouldn’t mind seeing Shovel Knight join the fight as well after he was so
robbed of a spot in the Smash Ballot for last game.
Also, I know it’s a meme at this
point, but I wouldn’t mind a bit of Undertale
representation. I have no idea how they’d make that work or what character
they’d pick, but it’d be cool.
Crash Bandicoot
It was a huge surprise seeing that
Nintendo was bringing the awesome Crash
Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy to Switch (and if you never played that game on
PS4 definitely check it out), so hey, why not include one of gaming’s
biggest platforming mascots from the 90’s in the new Smash?
There was a time that Crash was as
iconic for PlayStation as Mario is for Nintendo and Sonic is for Sega, but he
was basically shoved out of the spotlight the second cartoony animal
platformers stopped being the big thing and Naughty Dog moved onto other
projects. But now that he’s gotten a chance at redemption with the awesome
remaster of his classic PS1 trilogy and a
spot on the Switch, I think it’s only fair to give the guy his due.
Banjo-Kazooie
My #1 pick to be included in the new Smash as well as probably the least
likely character out of the eight I just listed off to be included is none
other than Rareware’s own Banjo-Kazooie.
Back in the days of the N64 Banjo and
Kazooie were unstoppable. Their pictures would appear alongside Mario and
Link’s in Nintendo ads. Their games were hailed as the greatest platformers of
their time, and even to this day both Banjo-Kazooie
and Banjo-Tooie are some of the
most beloved games from that era. I guarantee that if Rare hadn’t been bought
by Microsoft in the early 2000’s Banjo would’ve made it to Smash years ago.
But they were. And he didn’t. And so
here we are.
Poor Banjo and Kazooie haven’t seen
any action in a decade now, ever since the great disappointment that was Nuts and Bolts. There was a glimmer of
hope last year when Yooka-Laylee was
coming out that they could fill the void left behind by the bear and bird,
but…nope, that game sucked too. It’s time the original duo made a comeback, and
bring Rare back from the brink with them.
Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox team,
has expressed numerous times that he’d be more than happy to allow Banjo and
Kazooie into the game, even as recently as last month! While the characters are
essentially retired these days, as someone who grew up in the N64 age I can
tell you that back then Banjo was as quintessential a name for Nintendo as Mario and Link
were. If the Duck Hunt Dog can make it in to represent the NES era and the Wii
Fit Trainer can make it in to represent the Wii era, Banjo-Kazooie should be
here to represent the N64 era. It’s only fitting.
So those are my picks! Who do you want
to see in the game? Let me know and I’ll see you next week!
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